The PBS Design Squad website, which supports the popular t.v. show of the same name, features 15 cool activities, some of which we’ve featured on this EGFI teachers’ site. From an extreme kicking machine to a ping-pong ball launcher, these challenges will unleash your students’ ingenuity and get them thinking like engineers. Designed for 9-12 year olds, each activity has step-by-step instructions and age-appropriate explanations of the main idea.

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Filed under: Web Resources | Comments Off on Website: Build It With PBS!

Tags: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Television show, Website

National Lab Day, a new nationwide initiative to support project-based learning, is coming in May, 2010. Volunteer science and technology professionals and educators will work together with students to improve America’s science labs and offer inquiry-based STEM experiences in classrooms, learning labs, and after-school programs. Find out how to be a part of it.

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Filed under: Web Resources | 1 Comment »

Tags: Teaching Aids

President Obama has announced a campaign to enlist companies and nonprofits to provide money, time, and volunteer work to encourage students–especially in middle and high school–to become involved in science, technology, engineering and math.

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Filed under: K-12 Education News | 3 Comments »

The website also challenges parents, after-school program administrators and community members to pledge to connect children in their lives with the wonders of science and math.

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Filed under: For Teachers, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Grades K-5, K-12 Outreach Programs, Web Resources | 2 Comments »

Tags: After School, Summer Camps & Programs (Students)

The essay contest “Biomedical Breathroughs and My Life” for 7th and 8th grade students in Washington, Oregon, Montana, and Idaho, invites essays on how biomedcial research has impacted, or has the potential to impact, someone students know personally. Entry deadline: Dec. 9, 2009.

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Tags: Biomedical, Competitions for Students, Essay Contest, Grades 6-8

This educators’ essay contest asks teachers to share their knowledge on designing science lesson plans and integrating technology into the classroom. Winners gain free admission to the 2010 AAAS Annual meeting, a $800 stipend, and magazine subscription.

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Filed under: K-12 Education News, Web Resources | Comments Off on Educators Essay Contest, Dec. 14

Tags: Competitions for Teachers, Lesson Plans, Teacher Awards

In this single-session activity, students in grades 1-5 participate in a hands-on science investigation of electricity. They learn through discovery about how electricity works. Students’ natural curiosity and sense of exploration enable them to explore and learn on their own with minimal input from the teacher.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades K-5 | 1 Comment »

Tags: Class Activities, Electrical, Grades K-5

The Sylvia Shugrue Award for Elementary School Teachers honors an “elementary school teacher who has established (or is establishing) an interdisciplinary, inquiry-based lesson plan. The lesson plan will fully reference sources of information and any relevant National Science Education Standards and benchmarks found in the Atlas of Science Literacy.”

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Tags: Scholarships and Fellowships, Teacher Awards

Practicing elementary civil engineering, students in grades 1 through 8 build a portable paper structure able to support the weight of a book. They learn that material strength varies with shape and arrangement.

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Filed under: Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Lesson Plans | 2 Comments »

Tags: Civil Engineering, Engineering Design, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Materials Engineering, Society for Women Engineers, Team-building skills